Sony Mobile Q1 FY15 Results - Xperia Sales Collapse

If you’re a regular reader of this site, you know that I stay away from flashy headlines. In fact, our headlines tend to be the most stale though hopefully the most truthful as well. With that, I wrote the above headline with some trepidation yet cannot find it more true.

The Sony Mobile Q1 FY15 results are in and things are not looking rosy for the mobile arm of Sony. In fact, you have to go back three years to see results this low. The following is from Sony

significant decrease in smartphone unit sales resulting from a strategic decision not to pursue scale in order to improve profitability

After the jump you’ll find the dreadful results, including a chart of Sony Mobile quarterly sales for the last 5 years.

For Q1 2015, sales of Sony Mobile were down by 16% to ¥280.5bn ($2.27bn) in revenue. This translates to an operating loss of ¥22.9bn for the division. For the quarter, Sony was able to sell (not ship) 7.2 million Xperia devices which equals to a 23% year-on-year reduction.

With declining sales, Sony Mobile’s full year forecast have once again been adjusted to 27 million units, down from the already-lowered 30 million units sold. Sony is hoping that

improvement in product mix

will help transition the company and allow them to sell fewer, but more premium units which in turn will be more profitable. With this new strategy, Sony has mostly given up on achieving any meaningful marketshare or growth and is likely to focus on just a few products that will hopefully keep the division sustainable.

Fortunately for Sony, other divisions of the company are faring much better. Those details in a separate piece.